Nic Nemeth AAA mega champion, Mascara Dorada universal champ, Dulce Gardenia shaved

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 04/26/2024 Arena México [CMLL, FDDE, Fuego el el Ring, Kaiser Sports, Publimetro, Record, SuperLuchas, Telediaro, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
***Arena Mexico 68th Anniversary***
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito b Acero & Aéreo
7:22.
2) Capitán Suicida, Futuro, Max Star b Crixus, Okumura, Vegas
10:37. Tecnicos took 2/3. Originally included Raider, Vegas almost immediately replaced him.
3) Dark Silueta, La Catalina, Stephanie Vaquer b Sanely, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard [Relevos Increíbles]
9:13. Team Vaquer took 1/3. Catalina and Vaquer didn’t get along the entire match, but never betrayed each other. Sanely’s return from her most recent knee injury.
4) Dulce Gardenia L Virus, Akuma, Disturbio [hair]
14:17. Dulce pinned Disturbio (3:52) and Virus (6:47) before losingly cleanly to Akuma and thus losing his hair. Akuma has now defeated the entire Atrapasuenos trios in hair matches.
5) Ángel de Oro b Templario
19:17, Angel de Oro taking 2/3. The last went 12:32, Oro winning with a poison rana (which Templario sold like a neck injury.)
6) Máscara Dorada b Titán, Magnus [CMLL Universal, final]
15:25. Dorada pinned Magnus (12:31), then Titan to win the Universal final.

This show peaked with Angel de Oro/Templario, but it was a really good show all the way through. The crowd was very much into the hair match, and it opened and closed with good matches.

That final had good action, but it didn’t have the star power of last week’s match, and it didn’t have a great story to make it up for it. It was a “let’s do some big stuff match”, following another one and not taking advantage of the opportunity they had been given. Last year’s big Dorada/Titan encounter was memorable for Dorada being so close to getting the ropes to escape El Inmortal, the perfect thing to call back to in the final stretch here. Instead, they just did a quick sprint as the final two and Titan never got El Inmortal locked on. That moment is of those things wrestlers (especially ones doing a 150 matches a year like these two) can lose track of over a year, and that’s where having people behind the scenes advising and assisting them is supposed to fill in the gaps. Didn’t work out this time.

I’m a bit concerned CMLL’s overpushing Mascara Dorada, boosting him up so far and so fast before the crowd is ready for them. There’s a lack of challenges and goals to reach when Dorada’s already won the Universal championship and is already world champion; it’s just the big mask match to go. (This is the chronic women’s wrestling problem in mixed promotions – once they give a woman her first world title win, they’ve also usually run out of ideas for her.) CMLL’s diehard fanbase can resent young wrestlers for achieving too much early, and it’s took shake off a rep if they’ve decided a wrestler has been “gifted” wins instead of “earning” them. The CMLL counterpoint here is they did this same deal with Mistico and it worked out fine. Dorada hasn’t caught on like Mistico as of yet.

(It’s, again, also easy to see why Mascara Dorada isn’t working the BOSJ – CMLL isn’t going to push him this hard and then have NJPW run him out there to go 3-5 for their purposes. Doesn’t make sense for NJPW either. But there are other CMLL people who could’ve easily been sent to go 3-5 or worse.)

I had been told Dulce Gardenia was going away from CMLL for a time at the end of 2023. Then he just didn’t go. This hair match result is as the closest I’ve got to an explanation. I think people paying close attention could’ve put together Dulce was losing as soon as Disturbio got eliminated, but the crowd sure didn’t think so and was loudly behind him until his ultimate demise. I had one live report mention it felt like the some of the fans left after the match. Nothing seemed to get the same crowd reaction. I don’t think it’s a turnoff as much as a disappointment.

Attendance seemed pretty good, if not quite as good as last week.

I skipped over the Copa Bobby Bonales bit. It was only notable for a very creepy AI Bobby Bonales talking about his career. People are going to keep doing this – putting words in people’s mouths and making them move in unnatural ways – and they should actually not do this.

CMLL’s YouTube stream was a disaster for the first half of the show, just unwatchable due to errors. CMLL launched a new stream early on during the apuesta match – it was a lower resolution stream, but it actually worked and that was a welcome change. They uploaded the full show later that night and put out apologizes and promises to fix the problem in both Spanish and English. That sort of formal apology is rare for CMLL, rare for most of Mexican wrestling, and also doubly rare in English. (The one consistent thing is CMLL made no acknowledgement there even were issues until they had a fix.)

This Arena Mexico show was the final Friday show of the “month” for people who had subscribed around Homenaje a Dos Leyendas. CMLL is probably at the highest point they’ve ever been for paying subscribers. They were natrually going to see a cliff in the upcoming dates – there are people who paid for Bryan Danielson who won’t be back unless he is – but having a bad stream right at the tail end is particularly bad timing. To me, if your stream fails, you’ve got do something extra to make for it. CMLL felt just putting up the VOD later was good enough. In the bigger picture, CMLL should’ve been pushing “here’s all the great things we’ve got coming up in the next few weeks (if you stick around)” over the last few days, but they don’t have the manpower or the vision for those kind of pushes. It’s a missed chance, though one they might have again later this year.

The drone cam was back for this show – it’s definitely a “big show” thing – and they’re still playing with their new toy more than is useful, missing shots they shouldn’t have and not getting enough interesting stuff to make up for it.

CMLL (SAT) 04/27/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Kaligua b Pequeño Violencia [lightning]
6:24
2) Eléctrico & Leono b Forneo & Inquisidor
12:58. Tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Crixus, Dark Magic, Okumura b Arkalis, Hombre Bala Jr., Rey Samuray
15:36. Rudas took 2/3.
4) Kira, Marcela, Tessa Blanchard b Hera, Persephone, Reyna Isis [Relevos Increíbles]
10:30. Rudas took 2/3. Marcela started limping during the first fall, then left the match after a top rope double stomp to close that fall.
5) Blue Panther, Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther b Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo, Sagrado
16:16.. Tecnicos took 2/3.
6) Euforia, Soberano Jr., Valiente b Esfinge, Flip Gordon, Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
16:33. Rudos took 1/3. Euforia unmasked and pinned Esfinge, setting up a singles match next week.

Nothing that has to be checked on the show. Panthers match was the best, but they do that match with better rudos all the time. Match 3 was worse than normal. Marcela’s knee injury didn’t seem super serious but it’s reoccurring.

A reason for the run of relevos increibles matches is CMLL seems to want to position Tessa Blanchard on the tecnica side but haven’t committed to a turn yet. She’s a complete tecnica on her Informa interviews and it’s likely just a matter of time before the booking catches up.

CMLL (SUN) 04/28/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports]
1) Full Metal & Pierrothito b Galaxy & Pequeño Polvora [Relevos Increíbles]
Pequeno Polvora replaced Shockercito.
2) Astral & Diamond b Apocalipsis & Cholo
3) Tessa Blanchard b Zeuxis
7:54
4) Neón b Zandokan Jr., Robin, Crixus, Fuego, Akuma [Torneo Embajador De Los Niños]
Order of elimination: Robin (Zandokan), Fuego (Crixus), Akuma (Zandokan), Crixus (Neon), Zandokan (Neon) making Neon the 2024 kid’s champion
5) Atlantis, Hijo de Octagón, Octagón b Ángel de Oro, Magia Blanca, Niebla Roja
6) Máscara Dorada, Titán, Volador Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible

Sometimes this Kid’s Day shows draw really well. This one, two days early, does not appear to be one of them. Just a regular turnout.

CMLL (TUE) 04/30/2024 Arena México
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
2) Chamuel, Kemalito, Mije vs Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Tengu
Debut of KeMalito. Tengu is Micro Dito
3) Kira, Skadi, Tabata vs Hera, Olympia, Persephone
4) Esfinge & Volcano vs Difunto & Kráneo
5) Titán vs Villano III Jr. [lightning]
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Magnus, Templario, Volador Jr.

A very kid’s day show, where it’s probably an all tecnico event.

KeMalito makes his official in-ring debut. Micro Dito confirmed on Instagram that he’s got a new CMLL name. That will also be Chamuel’s first appearance in Arena Mexico since Christmas; he’s been working the US microshows. Everyone talks about AEW or WWE “stealing” talent from Mexico but no one talks about the Extreme Drafanators Wrestling doing the same thing.

This is the normal 7:30 local start time even with it being a special show.

CMLL (TUE) 04/30/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Trono vs Exterminador, Javier Cruz Jr., Maléfico
2) Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. vs Arlequín, Bestia Negra, Cris Skin
3) Dark Magic, Elemental, Yutani vs Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
4) La Catalina vs Valkiria [lightning]
5) Brillante Jr., Flip Gordon, Valiente vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible
6) Euforia, Hijo del Soberano, Soberano Jr. vs Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther

This is just a normal show that happens to take place on Kid’s Day.

Still no Friday lineup as I go to post. These have drifted later in the weekend in 2024, but it’s unusual for no lineup to be up midday Monday. It’s appears to be first Friday show of the year with no tournament or other special match, so it should be one of the more straightforward cards to put together.

Dark Silueta’s being advertised for an autograph signing on 05/05 in Tokyo, so she must be leaving for her next tour soon. That imminent departure may have also motivated getting that Lluvia title change done last week. Lluvia’s on vacation this week so they had not much time to do it.

Titán BOSJ schedule

05/11: El Desperado
05/13: BUSHI
05/15: HAYATA
05/18: Blake Christian
05/19: Clark Connors
05/20: Kevin Knight
05/22: Kosei Fujita
05/26: Yoshinobu Kanemaru
05/30: TJP

Desperado on day 1 and TJP on the final day means Titan is likely involved at least through the last block day. Fujita and Connors are title holders and are also candidates to advance. NJPW will have semifinals (June 3rd) and finals (June 9th). Normally the blocks themselves are split over two months, the calendar happens to work out that you could pull the plug after just one month if Titan doesn’t advance out of his block. This is the hopeful optimism and all around thriftiness you expect out of luchablog.

RevPro FantasticaMania UK 2024:

Show 1 (noon)

Show 2 (6 pm)

Zozaya is a new wrestler in RevPro, coming over from Spain. Rhio is not AEW’s Riho; it’s confusing. I’d assume everyone who’s in a singles match on one show will be working a tag match on the other, so figure Mistico vs Templario or Magnus on Show 2. CMLL and RevPro are announced a match a day for each show, so this lineup should be pretty close to complete by the end of the week.

The Wrestling Observer reported there’s hope that the CMLL wrestlers affected by work visa issues may be resolved as soon as this week. This group mentioned in this report includes Blue Panther, Templario, and Soberano, among people who would actually be booked on US TV. I had earlier been told Hechicero believed his approval would get approved in May, though he’s working with different people and isn’t bundled in with the above names. Mascara Dorada’s is also being worked on, and he’s in a third group. All of this promising news but also the single lesson I’ve learned from these visas is nothing is guaranteed until the wrestlers are told they can pick them up from the embassy; unexpected delays can and will happen.

Realistically, AEW would next want to use those wrestlers (or any CMLL wrestlers) after the Double or Nothing; it’s fine for them if they’re approved in time for AEW to book them on the 05/26 show to start the build to Double or Nothing. Getting approved “this week” would probably be more crucial for that 05/11 NJPW show – the CMLL male wrestlers were regulars on the NJPW US shows until that visa came up.

Perennial reminder: this situation affected some CMLL wrestlers, but not all of them. The two CMLL wrestlers most likely to be a part of the AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door PPV are Mistico (undefeated in AEW) and Stephanie Vaquer (as a NJPW champ.) They have work visas and are fine for AEW to book at any time. It’s also harder than I would’ve expected to figure out who AEW will use – no one had Rugido, Magnus, Esfinge and Star Jr. as their top names for AEW TV until they were there. Some of that is visa stuff, but some of is just out of the box thinking.

AAA

AAA TV (SAT) 04/27/2024 Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon [AAA, AS, ESTO, FDDE, Record, Telediario, thecubsfan, VOW]
1) Dalys, Flammer, La Hiedra, Maravilla b Estrellita, Faby Apache, Reina Dorada, Sexy Star
7:05. Dalys used a powerbomb and the ropes to pin Faby Apache.
2) El Elegido b Pimpinela Escarlata, Antifaz del Norte, Súper Caló, Aerostar, Chessman, Niño Hamburguesa, Mr. Iguana, Charly Manson, Abismo Negro, Heavy Metal, Tosscano, El Fiscal, Súper Crazy [Copa Bardahl]
26:40. Pimpinela beat Antifaz to win.
3) Forastero, Negro Casas, Sansón b Bestia 666, Dr. Wagner Jr., Tigre Blanco
18:27. Wagner, Bestia and Tigre Blanco (debut) were meant to be representing The Crash. Halloween and Damian ran in to help Bestia. Mecha Wolf ran in to fight Bestia. NGD betrayed Casas (again) to help Wagner win, then revealed NGD/Wagner combo masks. Wagner and Casas agreed to a family versus family match.
4) Nic Nemeth b Alberto el Patrón [AAA MEGA]
16:11. Vacant title; Hijo del Vikingo (knee injury) appeared before the match to hand over the title and vow he’d get it back. Moved down to match 4. Nemeth used a foul and the Danger Zone to beat Alberto. Nemeth is the 20th champion. Alberto cried in the ring with his children (who were not as emotional about this.)
5) Parker Boudreaux, QT Marshall, Sam Adonis, Satnam Singh b Laredo Kid, Murder Clown, Octagón Jr., Psycho Clown
11:49. Jarrett helped the rudos, with Faby Apache fighting him off after Jarrett harrassed Marsela Pna. Satnam chokeslamed Murder Clown through a table to win. Rudos unmasked the tecnicos.
6) El Mesías, Pagano, Vampiro Canadiense b Cibernético, Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz
15:59. Dark Scoria and Dark Espiritu ran in late, allying with Mesias. Mesias fouled Cibernetico. Ozz stood on the outside watching while Cuervo came back in, and eventually got rolled up by Vampiro. Vampiro thanked the fans in Monterrey for supporting him in his career. Latin Lover congratulated Vampiro to end the show.

AAA continues to damage the TripleMania brand with shows like this. The matches generally underdelivered, and there was no interesting or well done story to set up the next two shows. The crowd size appeared to be down from last year and at least some of those in attendance booed at the (cold, messy) ending to the show. This TripleMania was a glorified TV taping. It was only notable for Nic Nemeth winning the AAA Megachampionship. Other TV tapings AAA’s run this year have been come across hotter and have had better matches, so this would’ve been one of the lesser TV tapings this year. I never had hopes for the matches but I thought I’d get at least one interesting direction. AAA’s production missed shots as usual and failed to get across the crowd reactions, making the mediocre action feel even colder. This TripleMania wasn’t a funny bad show, it was just bad. You’ll be better of watching the video package of it later than spending four hours with it.

AAA juggled the matches around to put the Vampiro match last. That made sense: Alberto was losing, the foreigners were winning, makes sense to end on the happy ending. Except, the last minute of the Vampiro trios match came off like someone forgot their spots or froze or someone was missing. The idea seems to be Mesias and 2 of La Secta (Escoria & Espiritu) against Cibernetico and 2 of La Secta (Cuervo and Ozz), but they all just stood around passively after the finish, as if waiting for a cue that never came. Mesias and Vampiro both seemed annoyed after the fact. I can not figure out what was supposed to happen, and it wasn’t the only time in the match where everyone stood around frozen. This match would be great to go back with some Directory’s Commentary insight years from now – maybe we’d find out if Vampiro accidently missed the thumbtacks on his strange top rope move or if they were supposed to be used in another spot that didn’t happen – but it’s a notably weak main event in 2024.

Jeff Jarrett won the semimain, positioning himself as the top heel in AAA. QT Marshall and Sam Adonis could’ve easily been replaced by the Kamik-C and Skalibur for all the meant in this match, just background players who got no chance to do anything or get over. As pointed out to me, that probably means QT isn’t going to stick around – he came to AAA to re-establish himself as a top guy, and there’s no reason to stick around if this is what they have for him. Parker Boudreaux was somehow even less – they didn’t give him any spots to look impressive, his physique didn’t stand out in the gear he wore, and he struggled at basic. Either AAA did an exceptionally poor job of laying out the match in a way to get Boudreaux over, or they got worked into taking on a guy who didn’t belong in their ring. The match was built around Satnam Singh with Jarrett as his outside match, and very well done for that purpose. It is AAA, so we may never see Satnam Singh again. It’s amazing how AAA has Psycho Clown on a big show and didn’t have any idea for him. Octagon Jr. and Laredo Kid were used in US booking style, Mexicans masks who do a couple of cool things but are non-factors there to put over the real stars.

(an conspiratorial aside: Jeff Jarrett getting himself added to TripleMania and trying to get the Global Force Entertainment name back out there had me wondering if Jarrett was trying to keep his options open. Jarrett was WWE’s SVP of Live Events. He came over to AEW in 2022 to be Director of Business Development, which included being part of the live event team. AEW announced a new COO earlier this year, and announced a new Senior Marketing Director of Live Events Monday morning. That would mean nothing on it’s own, could just be the new guy (Jeremy Flynn) replacing Rafael Morffi, who left a similar titled role in December 2023. Someone coming in who’s responsibilities overlap with Jeff Jarrett at the same time Jeff Jarrett is trying to get his name out there is at least a “hmm” moment. Maybe nothing more that, probably nothing more than that, but I think we’ll at least see more Jarrett in AAA for now.)

Alberto has gained weight, as most of us do when we get older. Alberto has not gotten new gear, so he looked fairly silly through the match. (He finally took off the too tight t-shirt after the match and seemed fine, not WWE level but normal – the t-shirt just made it look worse.) The match was the usual tables brawls, the same thing we’d seen multiple times before and after. The finish looked bad but Alberto did sell it, and that basic part is not something I take for granted with Alberto. I think you could probably argue this was the best match of the night but it’s at the level that why would you bother to argue it, none of this stuff is worth seeking out. In the idea that “this is part 1 of a 3 part story”, Nemeth and Alberto will likely meet again on one of the future shows.

(I don’t believe Nemeth winning the title will have any affect on his relationship with NJPW or NJPW and CMLL’s relationship. I believe, like most things in AAA, it’ll be politely ignored elsewhere. NJPW champions are typically asked not to lose any matches outside the promotion, and that may have played into the result here.)

There were seven “surprise” wrestlers on the show. Most were just regular AAA rosters who hadn’t been advertised. Tigre Blanco was a surprise; the idea is it was supposed to be a big deal because a) Tigre Blanco’s father Mascara Sagrada and AAA sued each other over the name a long time ago, b) Tigre Blanco was on the most recent season of Survivor Mexico, and c) he was representing The Crash. The English announcers were not clued into reason A or B, and C rang false – I couldn’t find a Tigre Blanco with The Crash. Wagner worked the last show, but he’s the sort working there two shows a year. It came off as fully part of a match where you had to be in the AAA booking meeting to know what was supposed to be happening. It appeared the Monterrey crowd was not in that meeting and was lost. The concept was suddenly announced “The Crash versus AAA” during entrances, and no one explained why we were supposed to care about that match.

One of the big beats of the match was Bestia and Mecha Wolf facing off, as former partners who broke up – but AAA never ran the break up angle! On TV, MechaWolf talked about being on his own now without explaining why, because AAA had decided to pretend Bestia no longer existed for working The Crash. I think most people watching the show assumed Bestia and Mecha were still partners and had no idea why they were fighting. The Spanish announcers were screaming the storyline as Mecha confronted Bestia, but that was the extent of the build. You had to be an insider to understand why they were fighting, but you also had to be not paying enough to notice NGD had already violently betrayed Negro Casas in January and were fighting them on TV three weeks ago. (That part felt like AAA promised NGD a TripleMania match and just wedged them in here.) It all must’ve looked a lot better on paper. Tiger Blanco showed little in the ring, and Wagner and Casas didn’t have enough charisma to make this work. NGD were technically good but very cold.

Copa TripleMania was the usual bad and overly long Copa TripleMania. The fans who know the El Fiscal storyline – probably a small portion of their audience – want him to feud with Abismo Negro, and they appeared to be teaming instead. The women’s match was the usual pointless women’s match. They’re continuing to build towards Dalys (believes she’s a great wrestler) and Faby Apache (actually a great wrestler, doesn’t tolerate fakes) and that’ll the sort of fiasco that we’ve all come to know on TripleManias. AAA ran the Eye video again but didn’t do anything with it, a complete waste of time of an angle at this point.

I did see people speculating English announcer Larry Dallas was drinking during the show. I asked him during the broadcast, and he insisted he was not. He was under the weather and on a bunch of medication. He was also operating on a different vibe – someone who was completely over AAA, was going to have fun, and was not overly concerned with continuing to do that job. AAA can do that a person. I haven’t listened to Hugo and Jose but I did seem comments (in Spanish) bemoaning their performance too. Maybe I’m being too generous, but I assume the issue is that bad shows make the announcers seem worse – they’re either drifting into other things to talk about it to fill time or they’re trying too hard to sell things that aren’t that good. The Spanish commentary often does the second and the English commentary did some of the first.

I saw much less feedback and live posts about this TripleMania on Twitter than I can recall for a TripleMania; it was about the same as a normal CMLL Friday night show, with a little uptick once it started airing on Space. Some of that is the decline of Twitter as a platform for discussion, but it’s a safe guess fewer people bought this show than past years – the weak lineup and the bad product last time out ran people off. That may counter-intuitively mean the cagematch ratings/thumbs up/down polling may be up for the show; it’s only the diehards who are bothering to watch, and diehards of any promotion tend to be more kind.

People who were in the building say the TripleMania setup was smaller this time around, and suggested there may have been some giveaway tickets to help perception. AAA didn’t shoot wide shots of the building; it’s not like it was empty, I would guess over 10K, but AAA didn’t do those beauty panoramic shots they’ve done at other times, AAA reported attendances to WrestleTix last year and has not as of last check this year.

Between matches, AAA and the owner of the baseball team (and the baseball stadium) came out to exchange gifts. Dorian Roldan was unsurprisingly booed during that segment. The surprising part instead was fans chanting for LA Park all on their own. Roldan said LA Park was unfortunately not here, and put over the names who were there. LA Park claimed he saw the clip of the chanting fans in his hotel room in Tijuana and cried. LA Park can be dramatic on social media.

Latin Lover appeared on the show as special guest; there was no mention of his role beyond that. There was a shot of Latin during the main event where he looked very unhappy, but I think that was reacting in character to the match rather than at the show.

(Preemptive push back on “the crowd and show was great in person!”: you’re selling a $25 PPV. Preemptive push back on “this was the first act of a three show story!”: you’re selling a $25 PPV.)

Let’s mix it up with five positives to take from this show

Live fans still are genuinely invested in Vampiro’s retirement, both believe he’s a big deal and believe he’s really retiring. No amount of bad matches is changing their minds on that. The Monterrey crowd was kind to all of the old wrestlers, when they’re traditionally not that way in smaller settings.
The Mexican fans seem happy they have an ex-WWE star in Nic Nemeth as champion, he feels like a big star to them. Even if the title bounces to Alberto shortly, it does add some prestige to that title for Nemeth to hold it shortly.
El Hijo del Vikingo’s promo giving up the belt was well done; he’s not the kid he was that reign started and showed growth over the course of it.
The stream audio could stand to be improved, but the AAA stream worked the whole way. Started when it was supposed to, never had any buffering issues.
There appeared to be zero serious injuries on this show. Laredo Kid’s bump on the no-sold tope was hellacious, but he was fine after. Super Calo nearly smacked the back of his head on the apron on an elimination, but survived. Pagano was holding his arm in like a man who’s nowhere near 100% but nothing happened in this match that seemed to put him in any worse shape.

AAA’s next taping is 05/11 in Mexico City. The next TripleMania is 06/15. AAA typically gets out the top few matches for Tijuana within a couple of days of the Monterrey show ending, so expect news this week.

a long aside

Do you want to get over with a wrestling promotion? Would you like to be mentioned positively on a podcast? Please consider becoming a Lucha Libre AAA booster. They are desperately need of a sycophant. They are too fragile to cope with criticism and will instantly latch on to anyone who tells them what they want to hear – be that person! AAA talks about me a lot because this space of lucha libre discussion is too sparse and there’s not enough to discuss if they don’t discuss me. Give them something else to talk about, something that praises their strong points while dismissing any problems, and they’ll latch on to you immediately. If you want a way to get the wrestling business, and don’t care with who or how, there’s probably even a way to get a (non-paying) job if you work at it hard enough. You will have to shine up a lot of garbage as an AAA booster, but that’s a lot of the wrestling business anyway. I see a lot of people on Twitter who seem desperate to have an gimmick or have attention and I’m telling you right here that talking up AAA is an as easy opening as possible.

To be honest, this would help me too. AAA does a terrible job of communication, so the only way to know everything that’s going on is to listen to Konnan’s podcast. All I want to find out the AAA news that either they’re not organized to communicate properly, or that Konnan forgets is supposed to be a secret and blurts it out. Half the lucha segments end up in a detour complaining about me. I don’t care about about Konnan trashing me, I care that they’re doing the same segment over and over and over again; it’s terrible audio. The next episode will surely be among worst of the year in content, because TripleMania Monterrey got savage reviews and the podcast will be looking to blame that isn’t the people in charge of the show.

Part of the reason Konnan’s podcast do the same bit talking about me over and over again is because none of the hosts appear to do any planning or have any short term memory, so Konnan’s always repeating the same stories over and over to a completely disinterested Disco Inferno. Part of it’s because they lack the common sense to just stop mentioning me; I don’t do half as good job as promoting myself as they do. Part of it’s because the lucha libre news space is too small, so any lucha libre story ends up coming from me (or coming from the WON, where it mostly comes from me.) What that podcast really need is someone else to follow the WON strategy of a repeating what I’ve written a few days earlier, but make sure to reframe it in ways that make AAA look good (and to ditch the stuff that Konnan doesn’t want to be asked about.) They’ve tried to do it with various lucha news hosts over the year, but they still inevitably drift into mentioning something I said or Disco does it to bait Konnan, who falls for it everyone time. The same bit plays over and over again. Konnan and AAA itself would pat someone on the back if they gave them the safe space content they wanted to talk about, and would fully embrace them if they went farther to spin it in AAA’s favor.

Perfect example: so far, I’ve seen AAA wrestlers post that TripleMania had an attendance of 14,000, an attendance of 15,000 and an attendance of 17,000. All those numbers are appear inflated, but if “AAA news source” posted TripleMania drew 17,000 and pushed it on Twitter, no one would bother to check it (it’s only AAA) and it’d become established fact. Keep at it and you may have a job with AAA in six months. You could do it completely insincerely and still make it work. There are so many people already doing this bit, especially for industry leader WWE, but the AAA space is vacant. If you really want to get into the wrestling business, it’s such an easy bit. Think about it.

(Another solution is AAA actually communicates what’s going and does some of it English, making my coverage redundant and unnecessary. But, if the choice is between AAA doing something themselves or expecting someone else to do it for them free the way the want it done, the second one is much more likely.)

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 04/28/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Canibal, Indira, Xtreme Kid b Fobia, Pit Bull, Shura King
2) Bengalee & Candela b Dark Infiermium & Dehyna
3) Carnicero, Dark Esparta, Skanda b Cheff Benito, Cosmic, Milagro
4) Sacro & Sky Man b Jitsuo & Látigo 2000 Jr., Hijo Del Iracundo & Iracundo
5) Adrenalina, Águila Oriental, Ajolotol, Arceus, Pequeño Centauro, Rey Astarot, Thunder Storm, Vudu Max b Alama De Fuego, Cariñoso, Pinky, Rey Dragón, Skayler, Tigre De Acero, Uzumaki, Visionerio [Torneo Fill]
FILL vs Dark Sun Wrestling. Rey Astroth got the win for team CMLL.
6) Hell Boy, Veneno, Vudu Max b Kiki Roberts, Tony Rivera, Vangellys

Can’t tell you about this show. Attendance looked normal for this show.

IWRG (WED) 05/01/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) ? vs ??
Random Match
2) Águila Roja © vs Príncipe Centauro [IWRG IC Light]
2nd defense
3) Hell Boy © vs Vangellys [AIWF LA]
2nd defense
4) Noisy Boy © vs Arez [IWRG IC MIDDLE]
1st defense
5) DMT Azul vs Hijo de Canis Lupus [chain]

Kid’s Day is the 30th, and Labor Day is May 1st in Mexico (and many other days.) Wednesday’s are normally an unbusy day in Mexican wrestling but there will be a good amount of shows. IWRG is moving their weekly show one day up for that reason. I still want to watch last week’s Noisy Boy/Arez match but didn’t get to it yet.

Other News

05/05 GCW “The Wrld on Lucha”

Arez, Latigo, Gringo Loco vs Jack Cartwheel, Aramis, Gravity
Speedball Mike Bailey vs Galeno del Mal
Dulce Tormenta vs Masha Slamovich
Pimpinela Escarlata vs Effy
Mascarita Dorada vs Joey Janela – new

Rush and LA Park were supposed to have a match in Tijuana this Saturday, before Rush got called to AEW to make his return. DMT Azul replaced Rush, which meant it was a match of the current The Crash Heavyweight Champion (Azul) and the person who still has the physical belt from when he was champ (Park.) I didn’t think about this, because not even The Crash cares about The Crash’s titles, but LA Park was asked about it at a previews show – he claims he sold the title belt. He’s probably joking.

Rush did make his return on AEW Collision in a squash. Fenix returned as well, in an outstanding match with The Beast Mortos (Black Taurus.) There’s no clear direction for either yet, but I presume Fenix at least is on Double or Nothing if they’re giving him that much TV taping. Fenix should also be good for the 05/05 House of Glory match with Penta now.

El Hijo del Santo took to TikTok to claim he was robbed by workers at the Mexico City airport. Santo says he had a suitcase of masks, shirts and toys he was bringing to the US (first going from Mexico City to Tijuana), and someone at the airport opened the suitcase and took everything out. Santo says they were all gifts to be given to Mexican children and their parents in the US. I’m not sure I totally believe that “gift giving” part, but stolen items are stolen items.

Felifer Macias, the PAN/PRI/PRD candidate for Queretaro Municipal president, appeared at a Arena Queretaro Sunday and said he’d work with the owners of the building to rehab the building. That building was usable but could use the rehab.

A visit to the Villano IV candy store. Villano IV owning a candy store and Villano V being a (former? current?) dentist makes me believe they’re best friends or secret enemies.

Robles Promotions announced their shows will now appear on the Morita Play streaming service. I pay for a lot of wrestling content. I have to draw the line at paying 89 pesos/month for Robles shows. El Grafico’s version of this article clarifies it’s a open to people outside of Mexico.

Segunda Caida reviewed more late 80s Arena Coliseo Monterrey.

The Princesa Sioux who’s turned up lately is the daughter of Monsther – who’s out with an injury, she wrestled at a benefit show for him on Saturday. I figured she was in that family but wasn’t sure if she was an India Sioux daugther or another relation.

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